CIVILIZATION SEQUENCE PROGRAM
Annual Report 2004-05
A.Summary of Program
The Civilization Sequence Program (CVSP) was able to undertake a serious restructuring process that launched the Program into a new phase. Subcommittees were formed dealing with all aspects of CVSP: Mission, By-laws, Lecture, Core courses, Special topics, & Freshman courses. It was felt that primacy should be given to CVSP mission and vision statements with which all other aspects of CVSP would then be in accordance. At the same time all aspects had to fit in with the findings of the University General Education Strategic Planning Committee. By the end of the year reports had been submitted by all subcommittees, approved by the core CVSP faculty and presented to the general meeting. These will be compiled into a brochure for the use of all faculty. In addition CVSP is at an advanced stage of creating a dedicated website, which will be instigated in October 2005. This will include curricula of all courses and the new organizational guidelines as well as academic profiles of all full-time faculty.
Two new courses were introduced this year: Peter Bornedal’s CVSP 208F, “Four Theories that Shaped the 20th Century,” and CVSP 295N, “Nietzche’s Thought: Truth & Art,” as well as Mona Amyuni’s 295R1, “Modern Russian Literature.”
The CVSP welcomed a new addition to its multi-disciplinary reality, Professor Patrick McGreevy, the new Director of the Center for American Studies and Research, joined the CVSP this year. He offered two experimental courses each semester as sections of CVSP 295 Special Topics in Cultural Studies. These interdisciplinary, American studies courses were titled “The Cultural Geography of North America,” “The Shock of Modernity in America,” and “US Cultures and World Encounters.” Next year he will teach courses under the new AMST designation.
The Fine and Performing Arts courses and activities remained under CVSP umbrella for a final year pending the initiation of a separate department in fall 2005. Theater productions included a workshop play production in the first semester: "Yawmiyyat Kalb," presented by Lina Abiad, and in the second semester, "Waiting for Macbeth," a studio production involving students of three classes and faculty members Shebay'a, Hassan, Abunnur, and Kurani. Professors Meers and Deeb provided a number of musical events including the major Holiday Concert, first semester, and the Spring Concert, second semester, featuring Haydn's “Great Organ Mass,” sung by the AUB chorale accompanied by members of the Lebanese Symphony Orchestra and world-famous organist Naji Hakim. Many other performance events were aided by students of the music classes, notably the AUB Drama Club production of the musical "Fame". Visiting Whittlesley Choir Professor, Riad Abdul-Gawad, arabic music specialist, provided the department with two new CVSP 295 courses, “Maqam Melodic Mode Ensemble,” and “Musical Arts of Arabs.” He additionally presented three Maqam-Ensemble Concerts during the course of the year. The traditional arts exhibitions in drawing, painting, sculpture, and ceramics rounded off the year's activities, with David Kurani, Amal Muraywid, Neville Assad-Salha, Husein Yaghi, Helen Karam, & Magda Suleiman-Mabrouk's students’ contributing.
The Forum of the Civilization Sequence Program
2004 – 2005
“Visible Evidence” Workshop
Coordinator: Stephen Sheehi
The CS Forum took at different tact this year and broke with the venerable tradition of inviting guest speakers in a lecture/presentation format. Rather, the Forum was organized on a workshop-seminar model, where we invited two to four guests per workshop. The Provost’s Office was very generous in underwriting CS Forum, providing us with nearly $10,000, which allowed us to invite six guests from abroad as well as make certain that students and faculty have ample time with them (working coffees, lunches, and dinners).
These guests assigned a short but canonical theoretical text, which would be read off against a visual document (feature films, experimental documentary, and animation). While the initial invitees pulled out because of the events of February 2005, we were fortunate enough to reorganize. The first workshop was a resounding success while a large number of students and faculty from AUB as well as artists from the community have committed to the second workshop (May 20-21). The guests were also very generous with their time, where they met with faculty, graduate and undergraduates, journalists, and local artists throughout their stay.
Finally, we are considering compiling presentations for publication.
Below you will find a copy of the proposal, a list of guest “speakers”, and a summary of the first workshop in March, and plans for the second in May.
Summary of Workshop I (March 19-20, 2005)
Workshop leaders/guest speakers:
Prof. Diane Nelson (Anthropology, DukeUniversity)
Prof. Mark Driscoll (Asian Studies/Cultural Studies, UNC Chapel Hill)
Films:Ghost in the Shell
Scream
Society of the Spectacle
Reading: Slavoj Zizek, “Why Does the Phallus Appear” from Enjoy Your Symptom
Sigmund Freud, “Notes on the Mystic Writing Pad”.
THE CVSP BROWN-BAG SERIES
Coordinator: David Wrisley
The CVSP Brown Bag Series is an interdisciplinary venue for visiting speakers, faculty research, works-in-progress as well as graduate student presentations. This year we had 3 speakers. These included:
24 November:Raid Samaha, (AUB) “Is Terrorism Morally Justified?”
15 December: Sirene Harb, (AUB) “Slavery and the Reconstruction of Memory in Gayl Jones' Corregidora”
12 January:Muhammad Ali Khalidi, (Philosophy) "Orientalism, Neo-Orientalism and Oriental Orientalism in the Interpretation of Islamic Philosophy".
B. PERSONNEL
ACADEMIC
Butcher, KevinPhDProfessorHistory & CVSP
Moussalli, AhmadPhDProfessor PSPA & CVSP
Abdel-Gawad,RiadPhDVisiting ProfessorCVSP
McGreevy, PatrickPhDVisiting ProfessorCASAR & CVSP
Bornedal, Peter PhD Associate Professor CVSP
Jarrar, MaherPhDAssociate ProfessorCVSP (Director)& Arabic
Smith, RichardPhDAssociate ProfessorCVSP & SBS
Yaghi, HusseinPhDAssociate ProfessorEduc. & CVSP (2nd semester)
Azzam, IntisarPhDAssistant ProfessorSBS & CVSP
Deeb, ReemDMAssistant ProfessorCVSP
Genz, HermanPhDAssistant ProfessorArcheology & CVSP
Harb, SerinePhDAssistant ProfessorEngl. & CVSP(1st semester)
Hout, SyrinePhD Associate ProfessorEngl. & CVSP (1st semester)
King, DianePhD Assistant ProfessorSBS & CVSP
Koistinen, DavidPhD Assistant ProfessorHistory & CVSP (2nd
semester)
Mallette, Karla PhD Assistant Professor CVSP (on leave)
Meers, PaulDMAssistant ProfessorCVSP
Myers, RobertPhDAssistant ProfessorEngl. & CVSP (2nd semester)
Osborne, GregPhDAssistant ProfessorPhil & CVSP (1st semester)
Pinto, KarenPhDAssistant ProfessorCVSP
Sheehi, StephenPhDAssistant ProfessorCVSP
Wrisley, DavidPhDAssistant ProfessorCVSP
Ass'ad Salha, NevilleMFASenior LecturerCVSP
Amyuni, MonaPhDSenior LecturerCVSP
Kurani, DavidDipl.Senior LecturerCVSP
Muraywed, AmalPhDSenior LecturerCVSP
Nassar, C. SuhailPhDSenior LecturerCVSP (pt 2nd semester)
Shebaya, PeterMASenior LecturerCVSP
Abiad, LinaPhDLecturerCVSP (pt)
Faddoul, Atif PhDLecturerCVSP (pt)
Karam, HelenDESLecturerCVSP
Abdunnur, SharifMAInstructorCVSP
Arasoghli, AidaMAInstructorCVSP
Baasiri, Lutfiyya BA/D Instructor CVSP (pt)
Dibo, AmalMAInstructorCVSP
Hamati-Ataya, InannaMAInstructorCVSP & PSPA
Hassan, HaniMAInstructorCVSP & Phil
Mabrouk-Suleiman, MagdaMAInstructorEduc. & CVSP
Khoury, SamiraMAInstructorCVSP
Samaha, RaidMAInstructorCVSP & Phil
Tomeh, EdmondMAInstructorCVSP (pt)
GRADUATE ASSISTANTS
Abdel Latif, RanaBA(1st & 2nd semester)
Geha, NathaliaBA(1st & 2nd semester)
Khoury, HalaBA(1st & 2nd semester)
Shweiry, ZeinBA(1st & 2nd semester)
NON-ACADEMIC
Attiyeh, MonaSecretary
Mahmassani, RabihTechnical Service Assistant
C. TEACHING
Fall Semester 2004-2005
Core Curriculum
CVSP 201 15 Sections 379 students
CVSP 20210Sections253 students
CVSP20312Sections222 students
CVSP20410Sections259 students
CVSP2057Sections176 students
CVSP 207E2Sections 49 students
CVSP 208E2 Sections 49 students
Total Number of Students:1387students(Previous year 1517)
Elective Courses
CVSP 111 1 section 21 students
CVSP 150 2 sections 33 students
CVSP/Art220 2 sections 36 students
CVSP/Art 222 1 section20 students
CVSP/Art223 2 section23 students
CVSP/Art229 3 sections50 students
CVSP/Art233 2 sections 34 students
CVSP/Art234 1 section 6 students
CVSP/Music240 1 section 23 students
CVSP/Music242 1 section 18 students
CVSP/Music 242A 1 section 6 students
CVSP/Music 242B 1 section 4 students
CVSP/Music 243 1 section 1 student
CVSP/Music 243A 1 section1 student
CVSP/Music 243B 1 section 1 student
CVSP/Music 246 1 section 20 students
CVSP/Music 247 1 section 11 students
CVSP/Art250 1 section23 students
CVSP/Music 261 1 section 15 students
CVSP/Theater265 2 section 24 students
CVSP/Theater267 1 section 19 students
CVSP/Theater284 1 section16 students
CVSP 295AA 1 section11 students
CVSP 299AE 1 section5 students
CVSP 295AM 1 section 14 students
CVSP 295WE 1 section7 students
CVSP 295WM 1 section14 students
CVSP/French 201 1 section 24 students
CVSP/French 202 1 section 15 students
CVSP/French 216 1 section 21 students
Total Number of Students:516students (Previous year 507)
Total Number of All Students: 1903students (Previous year 2024)
Total Number of Credit Hours: 273(Previous year 282)
Spring Semester 2004-2005
Core Curriculum Courses
CVSP 20111 sections283 students
CVSP 20211 sections305 students
CVSP 203 4 sections100 students
CVSP 20412 sections308 students
CVSP 206 5 sections133 students
CVSP 208F 1 section 26 students
Total Number of Students:1155Students (Previous year 1496)
Elective Courses
CVSP 110 1 section27 students
CVSP112 1 section24 students
CVSP 150 2 sections 50 students
CVSP/Art220 2 sections 40 students
CVSP/Art222 1 section 21 students
CVSP/Art223 1 section 21 students
CVSP/Art224 1 section24 students
CVSP/Art229 2 sections 33 students
CVSP/Art229B 1 section12 students
CVSP/Art233 2 sections 61 students
CVSP/Art234 1 section 23 students
CVSP/Music241 1 section 23 students
CVSP/Music242 1 section 8 students
CVSP/Music 242A 1 section 15 students
CVSP/Music 242B 1 section 3 students
CVSP/Music243 1 section4 students
CVSP/Music243A 1 section 0 student
CVSP/Music243B 1 section 1 student
CVSP/Music 244 1 section 23 students
CVSP/Music 246 1 section 23 students
CVSP/Art251 1 section26 students
CVSP 260 1 section17 students
CVSP/Theater270 2 sections 51 students
CVSP/Theater 274 1 section17 students
CVSP/Theater283 2 section 60 students
CVSP 295AA 1 section 23 students
CVSP 295AB 1 section21 students
CVSP 295AM 1 section24 students
CVSP 295DR 1 section17 students
CVSP 295N 1 section20 students
CVSP 295R1 1 section15 students
CVSP 295WE 1 section25 students
CVSP 295WM 1 section25 students
CVSP/French 201 1 section 29 students
CVSP/French 202 1 section15 students
CVSP/French 215 1 section21 students
Total Number of Students:821students (Previous year 589)
Total Number of All Students: 1997students (Previous year 2085)
Total Number of Credit Hours:246(Previous year 252)
Total (students) for Both Semesters: students 3900(Previous year 4109)
Total (credit hours) for Both Semesters:519(Previous year 534)
- RESEARCH.
Assad-Salha, Neville
2005Working on body of work to be exhibited in Beirut. These works (sculptures) are based on architectural forms, researching elements of space. A range of materials being used also different scale representation. Readings from "The Poetics of Space" by Gaston Bachelard are being referenced back into the forms being produced.
2004-5 Design and production of pieces to be exhibited in Sydney, Australia, 7 x 2 meter tall forms along with one 1.5 meter form based on the Greek Oracle and titled "The Omphalos" with a sound track accompanying the sculpture. Collaborative works produced by Neville Assad-Salha and Panos Couros, a Sydney based sound artist.
Source of Funds Commissioned by the Australian Arts Council, NSW, Australia.
2004Accompanied by a paper given in New South Wales, Australia, was a large sculpture produced by Neville Assad-Salha made from clay material, large scale titled, "Twin Domes". Also, Slide Lecture delivered to a group of tertiary students from many institutions throughout Australia.
Source of Funds Partly funded by New South Wales government. Partly funded by self.
2004Slide Lecture given to Post Graduate students in Fine Art at the University of South Australia (ArtSchool.)
Discussion on Neville Assad-Salha's work over a period of 30 years.
Source of FundsUniversity of South Australia.
2004Researching for exhibited porcelain vessels at 'Skepsi Gallery', Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Source of Funds. Funded by self.
2004 Researching cultural diversity in preparation to deliver at the SouthAustralianUniversity, Adelaide, Australia, (In conjunction with the symposium titled 'trompe l'oeil’ coordinator, Dr. Pam Zeppelin).
Accompanied by the research on "Cultural Diversity" was a phone lecture delivered from Beirut to The University of South Australia, Adelaide. Along with this was also a PowerPoint presentation of images produced by Neville Assad-Salha.
Source of Funds Partly funded by symposium convener,
(University of South Australia). Partly funded by self.
Bornedal, Peter
Work in Press or Accepted for Publication:
Book:On the Beginnings of Theory—Deconstructing Broken Logic in Grice, Habermas, and Stuart Mill. (Lanham, New York: Rowman and Littlefield on imprint UPA, 2005); ix + 230 pages. In press.
Essay: A Silent World—Nietzsche’s Radical Realism; World, Sensation, Language. To appear in Nietzsche-Studien 34 (New York, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2005), pp. 1-47. In press.
Article: The Fragmented Nietzschean Subject and Literary Criticism—Conflicting Images of Woman in Jacobsen’s ‘Arabesque to a Drawing of Michelangelo’. To appear in The Comparatist (Southern Comparative Literature Association, 2006.) Approx. 30 pages.
Review-article: Review of A. Honneth: Das Paradox des Augenblicks: ‘Zarathustra’s Vorrede’ und Nietzsche’s Theorem des ‘Ewige Wiederkunft des Gleichen’ (Könighausen & Neuman, 2002); H. Lomax: Nietzsche’s New Nobility and the Eternal Recurrence in Beyond Good and Evil (Lexington, 2003); L. Hatab: Nietzsche’s Life Sentence: Coming to Term with Eternal Recurrence (Routledge, 2004). (Review-article requested by editors of Nietzsche-Studien. Approx. 15 pages).
Book-manuscript: The Surface and the Abyss—Nietzsche as Philosopher of Mind and Language (Manuscript still in progress; accepted on basis of synopsis and two sample-chapters; approx. 300 pages).
Work Under Review:
Article:The Navigator of Argument—The Logical Immanence of Neo-Pragmatic Positions in Stanley Fish. (Revised according to recommendations; final acceptance pending. Approx. 25 pages).
Essay: Eternal Recurrence in Inner-Mental-Life—The Eternal-Recurrence-Thought as Describing the Abstract Conditions of the Possibility for Knowledge and Pleasure. (Positive initial reception by main editorial board; final acceptance pending. Approx. 70 pages).
Article:Will-to-Power and Reality-Principle—Understanding Nietzsche’s Will-to-Power-Subject in the Context of Freud’s Early Neurological Theories. (Submitted; approx. 20 pages).
Article: The Resistance of Pleasure; The Hallucinations of Pain. (Submitted; approx. 20 pages).
Article:Chiasmatic Reasoning—Strategies of Self-Immunization in Jürgen Habermas. (Submitted; approx. 10 pages).
Work in Progress:
Book Manuscript: The Surface and the Abyss—Nietzsche as Philosopher of Mind and Language (cf. 6 above).
Article: Apposition/A-position—On the Project of De Manian Deconstruction: Misreading, Neutralization, Verwerfung, and the Transgression of Past Transgressions.
Hamati-Ataya, Inanna
Currently writing a PhD Thesis in Political Science (Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), under the supervision of Pr. Michel Dobry, Head of the International Relations Section of the PS Department.
Subject of the Thesis:
Facts, Values and Norms in the Realist Theory of International Relations. An Epistemological and Sociological Study.
Other Research in progress:
The EU’s Need for Oil: European Ethics and Strategic Cooperation. (Paper selected for a joint Conference (LSE & King’s College) on “The Ethical Dimensions of European Foreign Policy”, July 2005.
Jarrar, Maher
- “Christ’s Iconographies in Some Modern Arabic Novels: The Arabic Novel Carries Its Cross and asks the Son of Man,” in Poetry’s Voice – Society’s Norms. Forms of Interaction between Writers and their Societies, ed. Andreas Pflitsch & Barbara Winckler. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2005 (accepted for publication in Poetry’s Voice – Society’s Norms. Forms of Interaction between Writers and their Societies, ed. Andreas Pflitsch & Barbara Winckler. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2005; 37pp).
- “Death and the Badī‘in Early ‘Abbasid Poetry: The Elegy for al-Numayrī by ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Mu‘tazz,” a joint article with Prof. Tarif Khalidi, (forthcoming in Al-Abhath, 54, 2003/04).
- “It Stinks in Basra: al-Jāhiz on Odors,” forthcoming in the proceedings of Jāhiz International Conference, January 2005, organized by CAMES (AUB) & the German Oriental Institute (Beirut).
- Working on a paper on the reception of the Arabian Nights in the modern Arabic novel to be delivered at a conference on "The Arabian Nights in Historical Context: From Galland to Burton," October 21-22, 2005, sponsored by the UCLA Center for Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Studies at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.
- Working on a study on ‘A. Munīf’s two novels: Hīna taraknā al-jisr and al-Nihāyāt for the MIT-EJMES on MUNIF vol. 8 (autumn 2005).
Khoury, Samira
"In Time of War Women Wage Peace." An oral history project documenting women's peace activities during the Lebanese civil war. The project started in February 2005 in collaboration with Swiss researchers; it is still at initial stages. Expected to be finalized in 2007.
Kurani, David
-Ongoing research in portrait and landscape painting in the new water-soluble oil colors.
-Research in painting in oil-alkyd paints over an ink base.
-Ongoing work in stage and landscape design, trompe d’oeuil techniques, studio and plein-air painting in watercolors and mixed media.
Meers, Paul
CREATIVE ACTIVITY: Performance, Research, Writing, and Presentations
Program Development, Professional Development
Joseph Haydn and His American Contemporaries. Concert by the AUB Choir and Choral Society with Naji Hakim, organ soloist, and members of the National Orchestra of Lebanon. Program includes Early American Psalmody and part-songs, and Haydn’s part-songs, and the Great Organ Mass, H. XXII 4 in Eb. Primary conducting duties.
The University of Vienna Choir and European Voices Istanbul. Conductor for part of a concert with these ensembles in Assembly Hall, with the AUB Choir and Choral Society, March 22, 2005.
The ThirdAnnualChoralClassicHigh School Workshop. Conductor and coordinator for weekend choral performance workshop for high school students in Lebanon, with the AUB Choir and Choral Society, March 12, 2005. Primary conducting duties.
Holiday Concert, December 2004. Conductor the AUB Choir and Choral Society of works a cappella and accompanied by Dufay, Pachelbel and Poulenc among others. Primary conducting duties.
The AUB Summer Vocal Ensemble. Conductor and improvisation coach for concert of AUB student vocal ensemble, September 29, 2005. Primary conducting duties.
Third Annual Chamber Music Concert Series, featuring solo and ensemble performances by university students and alumni. Coach, accompanist, and coordinator, March 4 and April 13, Assembly Hall.
Research, Writing, and Presentations
Vernacular Latin: Implications for the Singer and for the Music. Invited presentation at the conference “The Phenomenon of Singing” International Symposium V, St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada, projected July 2, 2005.
Haydn and His American Contemporaries. Program notes and pre-concert talk,
May 5, 2005.
Holiday Concert, 2004. Program notes, December, 2004.
Program Development
Spring Choir Concert with orchestra. Coordination of all aspects of concert production with various AUB and non-university offices and agencies including the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, The AUB Development Office, the Mission culturelle française, and the US Embassy Cultural Fund and Handlo Music Publishers, Bath, UK.